Pursuing Justice

Jody Kent Lavy is serving as a Stoneleigh Fellow with The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. Her focus will  be to expand the use and availability of Restorative Justice practices in cases of serious harm involving young people. She founded CFSY in 2009 with an eye toward banning juvenile sentences of Life Without Parole, condemning children to die in prison. Prior to her time at CFSY, she worked with the National Prison Project of the ACLU in Washington, D.C. and the ACLU of Southern California. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications from Boston College and a Master's degree in Public Management from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.

Visit www.cfsy.org to learn more.

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information. 

What is Pursuing Justice?

What if you or someone you loved were arrested, convicted and incarcerated for a crime --a crime for which you or that person was innocent?
What if the lawyer you hired was incompetent and you were out of funds and out of options?
What if years and decades had gone by and you or your loved one were still behind bars?
Where would you find help?

Wrongful conviction in the United States occurs more often than you might think. In 2022, the National Registry of Exonerations recorded 417 people who were proven innocent.

They have tracked cases of innocence since 1989. Since 1973, 200 people were taken off Death Row and freed from prison.

The total number of men and women exonerated since 1989 is 3,460. That is just the tip of the iceberg as it is estimated that 4%-6% of the 2 million people doing time are innocent.

The desperate help these people need is coming from innocence organizations in most every state in addition to groups like Conviction Integrity Units around the nation. They work pro bono for each client.

This podcast will explore causes of wrongful conviction in addition to many other topics related to our criminal justice system. We will continue to interview exonerees, share memoirs they have published, speak to Professors of Law who are also authors of books about false confessions and junk science. We will interview directors of Innocence Projects around the nation in addition to organizations like "Puppies Behind Bars".

Host Harriet Hendel served on the Board of Directors of the Innocence Project of Florida from 2013~2019, having been active with IPF since 2009. The project is the sponsor of the podcast.

Harriet has been teaching classes on topics related to our justice system since 2012 in Florida and New Jersey. Her goal is to shine a light on the miscarriage of justice going on all over our nation with the hope that one day wrongful conviction will be eliminated for good.